The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1884. MR ROLLESTON’S LEASING SYSTEM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1131, 26 January 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1884. MR ROLLESTON’S LEASING SYSTEM.

Mr E. Wakefield made a splendid speech the other evening at Leeston, but it was more retrospective than I prospective, and moie critical than logical. He favored the present Government until Sir John Hall resigned—since then it has deteriorated and he is opposed to it. One of the great sins of the present Ministry is the introduction of the leasing system into their land administration. If such a system were adopted to any extent the colony would not be worth living in. The leaseholders would soon want to become freeholders, or supposing they did not it would result in creating the existing landowners into a landed aristocracy. Such are Mr Wakefield’s views. We were under the impression that there Was already a ‘ landed aristocracy,’ and that they regarded themselves as ‘ a distinct class.’ And supposing the leaseholders wanted to become freeholders, what difference would there be between giving them freeholds now and freeholds when they would choose to ask for them ? We regret very much to see Mr Wakefield having such confused ideas on the subject. He generally puts a good face on anything he advo cates no matter whether it is right or wrong,but in this matter he is altogether in a fog. Let us see now what this leasing system means. It is that since Sir John Hall left the present Government Mr Rolleston has been trying to induce persons who are overcrowding our towns to go into the country and settle on the land. With this object in view he passed Bills empowering the Government to lease land to persons desirous of takmg it up. ft is not necessary to go into all the details connected with the passage of these measures. We shall only direct attention to their effect. Supposing Tom Jones had £SOO, and there was no , land to be had on a leasehold tenure, 1 what could he do ? He could settle on a J

30 or 40 acre paddock with it, and he would have to mortgage even that up to the eyes if he wanted to breakit up and work it. After being 12 months working Tom Jones would be a very happy man if lie could get £SOO back. But suppose Tom Jones took up a farm, say of 500 acres, on the very easy terms, and the very secure tenure the Government give under the leasing system, he would have his £SOO to work it, and he would be in a good position to pay his rent in a few years. The point is this. Under the leasing system men with small capital can take up land and prosper on it ; under the purchase system no one can hope to succeed in making a living better than a laboring man, unless he has sufficient capital to buy out his land, and at the present price very few can do that. We have evidence of the success of the leasehold system all around us. Tenants on private property in this district who have been paying 10s, 12s 6d, 15s and even 20s per acre for their land have been able to weather though the hard times, and are now in a substantial position, while a good many farmers who owned land and were in the hands of money lenders had to go * through the mill.’ How much better would have been the position of the tenants referred to bad they been tenants of the Crown, and paid only perhaps a quarter the rent they pay to their present landlord. Mr Wakefield knows all this, and he has a clearer intellect than that which could be deluded into believing what he says on this subject. He knows well that the leasing system is the grandest piece of legislation that ever passed through the New Zealand Parliament, and it is not right of him to condemn it. Sir John Hall did the same thing, After he left the Government they introduced the leasing system, and they were opposed by Sir John Hall, that highminded patriot—the saviour of New Zealand, according to Mr Wakefield. We make a great mistake if it was not on this point the Government split with Sir John Hall, for we feel sure thai a man like him, who has ever shown a disposition to unduly favor landowners, could be brought to agree to so radical a change. We’ feel sure that this was the reason Sir John resigned, and if so it was a happy day for the colony. We have frequently criticised the present Government, we have not spared them when we thought them wrong, for we do not believe in bolstering up what we do not think is for the public good, but really we feel convinced that they have improved since they parted company with Sir John Hall. The fact that the Christchurch Press and Mr Wakefield have turned round to abuse them leads us to conclude that they are much more radical than we thought they were, and ought to be the key lor all Liberals to join them. At any rate their land administration is par excellence the best thing that was ever done in the colony and if 20,000 SeLvyn candidates condemned it we would not hesitate to say that the day will come when it will be regarded as the best and most useful action in Mr Rolleston’s long and useful public service.